BFRDP Projects

As interest in new farmer training continues to grow across the country, and more new farmer training projects launch every year, it is imperative that we better understand how to design the most effective and successful new farmer training programs, as well as demonstrate the impacts federal investment have on growing the next generation of farmers. 

Since the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) was first created in 2008, over $145 million has been invested to support nearly 300 new farmer training projects impacting farmers in every state across the country.  While each project is required to track and report outcomes and impacts, until this evaluation was conducted, no national-level analysis had ever been completed of BFRDP as a whole.  Our project team developed and published the first-ever comprehensive evaluation of BFRDP funded projects by analyzing qualitative and quantitative data from project reports, surveying BFRDP project leaders, writing successful project vignettes, and assessing the long-term impacts of completed projects. With this project, we sought to better understand both the short and long-term outcomes and impacts of BFRDP as a whole, and to better understand the factors that lead to more successful new farmer training projects.